Engineers are being thrown into the deep end when it comes to designing PCB’s.  The project manager believes that it’s cost effective to get the engineer to do the PCB layout as well as the engineering.  After all, the engineer knows the design inside out, has some knowledge of Altium Designer and has designed a few PCB’s before. 

In most cases the final design will work but it may be of an average standard and generally takes twice as much time as it should. Some companies are willing to absorb this time cost. They don’t however, go to the next step and analyse and compare the costs of manufacturing "average" designs against great designs which take into account all the aspects of DFM.

For example, a professional PCB designer can potentially turn an eight layer PCB into a six layer PCB.  The price cost analyses below shows that there are considerable savings to be made for the manufacture of a board with fewer layers. It roughly costs 50% more to manufacture an eight layer board than a six layer board.

 

The above data was obtained from PCB Global (August 2014) however percentages will vary across different manufacturers so consult your own vendor for a price comparison. 

Reduced layers are one of many aspects of a great design that an experienced PCB designer can achieve. At Fine-Mark Design we get the best PCB outcomes for your projects. To contact Chris for more information about our service click the button below.